Morning Briefing: White House announces plans for building resilience

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While it is true that a timeshare contract is a binding legal document, it is often mistakenly thought that such a contract cannot only be cancelled. In fact, most timeshare companies maintain that their contracts are non – cancellable. This misconception is perpetuated by timeshare companies and user groups that are funded, maintained and controlled by the timeshare industry.

The FHA 203k loan program provides home buyers the opportunity to buy and fix up a property, without exhausting their personal savings.

White House announces plans for building resilience
The impacts of climate change necessitate a structure for building more resilient communities, the White House said Wednesday. At a Conference on Resilient Building Codes the Administration highlighted the work being done by public and private sectors to advance building design and standards.

“Improving resilience is about much more than just reducing disaster-related risk. Community resilience needs to address not just environmental factors, but quality of life and economic prosperity,” said ULI Center for Sustainability Executive Director Sarene Marshall. “Sustainability, livability, health and prosperity are all necessary components of resilience, and land use patterns link these together. This holistic view is helping communities think beyond catastrophes and evolve into thriving places with more potential and promise than ever before.”

The measures being proposed by the White House were also supported by surveyors’ body RICS.

“RICS welcomes the White House’s increased attention to the important role of codes and standards in achieving building resilience. The organization aims to support the White House initiative via several commitments RICS has made to the coalition,” said Neil Shah, RICS Americas managing director.
A full list of proposals and commitments made by industry stakeholders are on the White House website.

Foreclosures inventory down to 8-year low
The foreclosures inventory was down by 23.2 per cent in March according to CoreLogic. Completed foreclosures dropped 14.9 per cent to 36,000 in March 2016 from 42,000 a year earlier.

The inventory was 1.1 per cent of all homes with a mortgage, 427,000 homes in total. It’s the lowest rate of any month since October 2007. The rate of serious delinquencies (90 days or more) fell 19.1 per cent to 1.2 million homes with mortgages, representing 3.4 per cent of all homes with mortgages. This is the lowest rate since November 2007.

Military personnel should rent in small rural markets
US-stationed military personnel who want to live off-base get the best rental deals in small rural towns. Trulia says that just 34 per cent of military personnel are homebuyers/owners compared to 64 per cent of the population overall; and military personnel are more likely to have moved home within the past five years (34 per cent of military vs. 13 per cent of all households).

Affordability varies depending on pay grade but least affordable markets for those on lower grades with dependents include Fayetteville, AR; Florida Keys, FL; and Quantico/Woodbridge, VA.

The more affordable markets for lower grades with dependents include New Haven, Fairfield, CT; Saginaw, MI; and Rock Island, IL.